Fabric Article Having a Side Fold Non-Gathering Feature

ABSTRACT

A garment is provided having an upper torso portion with a neck pass through opening, a trunk portion, and securement elements. The trunk portion includes a left arm port, a right arm port, a left hand side-fold assembly, and a right hand side-fold assembly, a front panel, and a back panel, each of the left hand side-fold assembly and the right hand side-fold assembly being connected to the back panel and the front panel and being foldable to overlie a respective lateral area of the front panel of the trunk portion. The securement elements secure the left hand side-fold assembly and the right hand side-fold assembly in a plurality of different folded dispositions, thereby providing a capability to adjustably vary a lateral width of the garment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a garment offering a safe and warm sleeping experience. U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,193 to Chen notes the desirability of a comfortable, convenient and safe sleeping garment for a child that enables the child to have free arm movement and that insures a safe and warm sleeping experience.

According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,193 to Chen, various types of sleeping garments for children are known and some conventional sleeping bags for children are sewn in an airtight manner so that the child or infant in the sleeping bag often feels excessively warm and uncomfortable in a warmer ambient environment. US Published Patent Application No. 20060064794 to Howard et al notes the desirability of a suit that assists in the transition of an infant from more confined spaces of sleeping, such as a bassinette, to larger and more spacious cribs, noting that such a transition can disrupt sleep patterns. According to US Published Patent Application No. 20060064794 to Howard et al, it would be desirable to have a sleep suit that acts as a transition object because it continues to provide the sense of security derived from swaddling or sleeping in a constrained space, as infants adjust to sleeping in a more open environment.

Thus, there is a need for improvements for a garment that is particularly suitable to promoting a sound sleeping environment for a child yet can accommodate a transition event such as when the sleep environment of a child changes from a smaller furniture piece to a larger furniture piece. There is also a need for improvements for a garment that is particularly suitable to promoting a sound sleeping environment for a child yet can accommodate a transition event such as when the overall size of a child has changed beyond an incremental change—i.e., an infant has grown into a toddler. Such an improved article will preferably provide reliable adjustment for adjusting the garment to accommodate these transition events while improving the convenience and simplicity of use of the garment.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a garment comprising an upper torso portion, the upper torso portion having a neck pass through opening, a trunk portion, and a plurality of securement elements. The trunk portion includes a left arm port, a right arm port, a left hand side-fold assembly, and a right hand side-fold assembly, a front panel, and a back panel, each of the left hand side-fold assembly and the right hand side-fold assembly being connected to the back panel and the front panel and being foldable to overlie a respective lateral area of the front panel of the trunk portion. The securement elements are operable to secure at least one of the left hand side-fold assembly and the right hand side-fold assembly in a plurality of different folded dispositions, with the at least one of the left hand side-fold assembly and the right hand side-fold assembly, in each folded disposition, overlying the front panel of the trunk portion to a different lateral extent than in the other folded dispositions, the at least one of the left hand side-fold assembly and the right hand side-fold assembly and the securement elements providing a capability to adjustably vary a lateral width of the garment.

According to one feature of the one aspect of the present invention, the securement elements include a plurality of donor snaps and a plurality of recipient snaps, each donor snap being releasably securable to a recipient snap.

According to another feature of the one aspect of the present invention, the plurality of donor snaps are mounted on a selected one of the at least one of the left hand side-fold assembly and the right hand side-fold assembly and the front panel of the trunk portion and the plurality of recipient snaps are mounted on the other one of the at least one of the left hand side-fold assembly and the right hand side-fold assembly and the front panel of the trunk portion.

According to a further feature of the one aspect of the present invention, the garment includes a zipper extending in the at least one of the left hand side-fold assembly and the right hand side-fold assembly.

According to an additional feature of the one aspect of the present invention, the upper torso portion includes a pair of straps each connected to the front panel and the back panel of the trunk portion and operable to extend over a shoulder of a person wearing the garment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

An embodiment of the present invention is now described with reference to the following Figures of the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the article of the present invention in the form of a garment in a condition for a robing operation in which a person dons the garment;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the article of the present invention in the form of a garment at the conclusion of a robing operation in which a person has donned the garment;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the article of the present invention in the form of a garment at the conclusion of a robing operation in which a person has donned the garment;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the article of the present invention in the form of a garment during a robing operation in which a person is donning the garment; and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of a portion of a side fold assembly of the garment shown in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBODIMENT

The present invention relates to a fabric article having a side-fold, non-gathering feature and the fabric article is preferably a garment. With reference to FIGS. 1-5, one embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. A garment 10 includes an upper torso portion 12 and a trunk portion 14. The upper torso portion 12 and the trunk portion 14 are preferably formed of a double-sided textile arrangement having an insulating portion supported between an outer-facing textile sheet and an inner-facing textile sheet.

As seen in FIG. 1, the upper torso portion 12 includes a neck pass-through opening 16 and the trunk portion 14 includes a left arm port 18, a right arm port 20, a left hand side-fold assembly 22, and a right hand side-fold assembly 24. The left hand side-fold assembly 22 and the right hand side-fold assembly 24 are both disposed intermediate the upper torso portion 12 and the trunk portion 14. The garment 10 is advantageously configured for use by a person desiring to have a comfortable yet appropriately fitted fabric article. The garment 10 is particularly suitable for a person desiring such a fabric article for use during a period of repose or sleeping and, to this end, the garment 10 can be configured with a trunk portion having a closed end that is closed at a location below the feet of the person using the garment 10. Alternatively, the garment 10 can be provided with a suitable lower limb opening such as, as seen in FIG. 2, a pair of ankle-through openings 26, that permit a person to use the garment 10 while leaving the ankles and feet in a non-covered disposition in which the ankles and feet are not overlaid or covered by the garment 10.

The one embodiment of the fabric article in the form of the garment 10 is specifically configured for use by a person of a relatively smaller stature—i.e., a child—and the garment 10 provides the particularly favorable advantage that it can readily and conveniently be accommodated to the changing dimensions of a child as the child grows. Moreover, the garment 10 is configured such that it remains aesthetically appealing throughout the range of re-configurations of the garment to accommodate the changing dimensions of a child or to accommodate the different dimensions of a subsequent user after the garment has been used by an earlier user. The manner in which the garment 10 can be re-configured to accommodate different dimensions of a user will become evident in the following description.

With reference to FIG. 1, it can be seen that the upper torso portion 12 is comprised of a pair of front panel strap halves 28A, 28B, a pair of rear panel strap halves 30A, 30B, a front bib portion 32, and a rear cape portion 34. The trunk portion 14 includes a front panel 36, a rear panel 38 (shown in FIG. 4), a peripheral seam 40, and a plurality of insulating pockets 42 delimited and closed off from one another by a plurality of cross stitches 44. With further reference to FIG. 1, the left hand side-fold assembly 22, which is a component of the trunk portion 14, includes a rear panel flap 46A, a front panel flap 48A, a plurality of donor snaps 50A, a plurality of recipient snaps 52A, and a zipper subassembly 54A. The donor snaps 50A are secured on the outer textile sheet of the rear panel flap 46A. The recipient snaps 52A are secured on the outer textile sheet of the front panel flap 48A.

The right hand side-fold assembly 24 includes a rear panel flap 46B, a front panel flap 48B, a plurality of donor snaps 50B, and a plurality of recipient snaps 52B. The right hand side-fold assembly 24 also includes a zipper subassembly 54B. Each one of the left hand zipper subassembly 54A and the right hand zipper subassembly 54B is configured as a conventional zipper having a zipper pull 56A, 56B, respectively, and the track of the zipper teeth of each respective zipper subassembly is a respective extension of the peripheral seam 40 on the respective right or left hand side of the garment 10. In an opened position of the zipper subassembly, the zipper pull 56A, 56B has been pulled downward along the track of zipper teeth and is located at a spacing below the respective left hand strap half 28A, left hand rear strap half 30A or right hand front strap half 28B, right hand rear strap half 30B. Conversely, when the zipper pull 56A, 56B has been fully drawn upwardly along the track of the zipper teeth to thereby effect interlocking of the zipper teeth, the zipper pull 56A, 56B is disposed at a spacing closer to the respective left hand strap half 28A, left hand rear strap half 30A or right hand front strap half 28B, right hand rear strap half 30B, than when the zipper pull is located in its downward position (the upper position of the zipper pulls 56A, 56B are shown, for example, in FIG. 4).

Each of the insulating pockets 42 is formed by the inner and outer textile sheets forming the front panel 36 of the trunk portion 14 and includes a suitable insulating material such as, for example, natural or synthetic feathers or fiber that are retained between a respective pair of the cross stitches 44 that extend laterally across the front panel of the trunk portion 14 from a left hand peripheral side thereof to a right hand peripheral side thereof. Such a configuration of these insulating pockets 42 provides suitable insulating properties that advantageously self-adjust to ambient cool or hot conditions in that the insulating material suitably retains warmer air in the event that there is a cool ambient temperature condition and, conversely, retains cooler air in the event that the garment 10 is used in a warmer ambient temperature condition. The outer textile sheet of the insulating pockets 42 is preferably formed of a suitably aesthetically pleasing, durable yet comfortable textile material such as, for example, a woven cotton or canvas duck material having suitable properties such as, for example, the property of a sufficiently high thread count to prevent the unwanted protrusion of feather stems through the outer textile sheet. The inner textile sheet of the pockets 42 is likewise formed of a suitable aesthetically pleasing, durable yet comfortable textile material.

The deployment of the garment 10 will now be described with respect to a robing operation in which a person desiring to use the garment 10 can be fitted with the garment. As seen in FIG. 1, an initial step in the robing operation includes lowering each of the zipper pulls 56A, 56B to their respective lower-most positions and releasing the rear strap half 30A, 30B from its respective snap connection with the front strap half 28A, 28B. The left hand rear strap half 30A is connectable to the left hand front strap half 28A via a plurality of donor snaps 58A each mounted at a respective spacing from the other snaps on the strap half and a plurality of recipient snaps 60A each mounted at a respective spacing from the other recipient snaps on the left hand front strap half 28A. With the strap halves 30A, 30B, and the front strap halves 28A, 28B disconnected from one another, the front bib portion 32 of the upper torso portion 12 can be folded forwardly and, as well, the rear cape portion 34 can be folded rearwardly, these folding actions operating to temporarily enlarge the neck pass-through opening 16. In a similar manner, the disposition of the zipper pulls 56A, 56B to their lower-most dispositions effectively increases the lengthwise extent of the left arm port 18 and the right arm port 20 temporarily, whereupon, as will be understood, the pulling on of the garment 10 initially over the feet, ankles, and legs of the person is facilitated.

With continuing reference to FIG. 1, with the garment 10 suitably configured for ease of entry of the person's feet, the person pulls on the garment 10 in a manner to insert his or her feet into the space between the front panel 36 and the rear panel 38 of the garment and the garment 10 is pulled on or drawn increasingly upwardly by the person until the person has pulled on or drawn up the garment 10 to an extent that the general lower torso of the person—i.e., the portion of the person's anatomy from the chest down to the feet—is located between the front panel 36 and the rear panel 38 of the garment 10 and is below the neck pass-through opening 16. Although the robing operation is herein described with respect to a person performing the pulling on or drawing on operation to thus dispose the garment 10 on the person's own body, it is to be understood that another person can perform this pulling on or drawing on operation for the respective person who is using the garment 10. Thus, for example, an adult can perform the pulling on or drawing on operation to robe a child or infant in the garment 10.

With reference now to FIG. 2, with the person using the garment 10 now having completed the initial drawing on operation such that the chest and all other portions of the body below the chest are disposed in the garment 10 below the neck opening 16, the strap halves are now deployed as well as the left hand side-fold assembly 22 and the right hand side-fold assembly 24, it being understood that the securement of these various components of the garment 10 can be performed in any particular desired order. The left hand rear strap half 38 is moved over the top of the person's shoulder and the donor snaps 58A are snapped to the recipient snaps 60A of the left hand front strap half 28A. The right hand rear strap half 30B is drawn over the top of the person's shoulder and its donor snaps 58B are secured in a snap closure manner to the recipient snaps 60B on the right hand front strap half 28B. The zipper pull 56A is drawn upwardly from its lower-most position to its topmost position, thereby effecting interlocking of the zipper teeth of the left hand zipper subassembly 54A. The zipper pull 56B is drawn upwardly from its lower-most position to its topmost position, thereby effecting interlocking of the zipper teeth of the right hand zipper subassembly 54B.

FIG. 2 illustrates the deployment of the garment 10 for a person of larger stature than will be described with respect to the deployment of the garment 10 as illustrated in FIG. 3. In a fold-over movement shown in FIG. 4, the left hand rear panel flap 46A of the left hand side-fold assembly 22 is folded forwardly in a direction from the rear panel 38 toward the front panel 36 and a suitable one of the donor snaps 50A is secured to a selected one of the recipient snaps 52A on the front panel of the garment, thereby resulting in a closed snap disposition of the left hand side-fold assembly 22 as illustrated in FIG. 2. Likewise, the right hand rear panel flap 46B of the right hand side-fold assembly 24 is folded forwardly in a direction from the rear panel 38 toward the front panel 36 of the garment 10 and a selected one of the donor snaps 50B is secured to a selected one of the recipient snaps 52B on the front panel 36 of the garment, as shown in FIG. 2. Upon completion of these various snap securement steps of the strap half portions over the shoulder of the person and the snap securements of the left hand side-fold assembly 22 and the right hand side-fold assembly 24, the garment 10 is now comfortably yet securely disposed on the person with the person's right and left arms extending through the left hand port 18 and the right hand port 20, respectively, and the neck of the person extending through the neck pass-through opening 16.

The garment 10 has a lateral extent or width as measured slightly below the arms of the person that permits the garment to overlie the chest and back of the person in a unconstricted and comfortable manner yet precludes inadvertent or deliberate removal of the garment from the person without releasing at least some of the snaps of the shoulder strap halves or the side-fold assemblies 22, 24. As shown in FIG. 2, this lateral extent LW1 is defined and delimited by the selection of the corresponding snaps that are secured to one another in a snap securement manner. For example, an outer-most one of the donor snaps 50A of the left hand side-fold assembly 22 is connected to an outer-most one of the recipient snaps 52A on the front panel of the garment 10 and this selection of the snaps provides the greatest width or lateral extent of the garment 10—i.e., this defines the maximum extent of the lateral extent LW1.

With reference now to FIG. 3, the garment 10 is illustrated in its condition at the completion of a robing operation in which the garment 10 has been deployed onto a person of relatively smaller stature than the person on which the garment 10 has been deployed as described with respect to FIG. 2. The robing operation proceeds in the same manner as described with respect to FIGS. 1, 2, and 4, with the difference that a different pair of donor snaps and recipient snaps are chosen to effect the fold-over operation of side-fold assembly 22 and the right hand side-fold assembly 24. In this instance, the outer-most one of the donor snaps 50A of the left hand side-fold assembly 22 has been positioned to be placed in snap securement with a respective recipient snap 52A that is laterally inward of the outer-most one of the recipient snaps 52A and, moreover, the next following donor snap 50A, as viewed laterally inwardly from the outer-most one of the donor snaps 50A, is disposed as well in snap securement with a respective one of the recipient snaps 52A. It can thus be understood that this different snap securement arrangement results in a decrease of the width or lateral extent of the garment 10 below the arms of the person and this is shown in FIG. 3, wherein the lateral extent LW2 of the garment 10 is less than the lateral extent LW1 as illustrated and described with respect to the robing operation in FIG. 2. As desired or necessary, it is also possible to adjust the securement of the strap halves to one another to contribute to an increase or decrease in the length of one of the left arm port 18 or the right arm port 20. For illustration purposes, the garment 10 is shown in FIG. 3 as having the outer-most one of the donor snaps 58A of the left hand rear plan strap half 30A secured to the lower-most one of the recipient snaps 60A of the left hand front panel strap half 28A, and the right hand strap halves are similarly deployed, such that the length extent of the left arm port 18 is an extent AP2 that is less than the length extent AP1 of the left arm port 18 shown in FIG. 2.

The garment 10 advantageously provides enhanced comfort and a pleasing, aesthetic appearance in all of its robing configurations, be it a configuration such as illustrated in FIG. 2 for a person of a relatively larger stature or a configuration as illustrated in FIG. 3 of a person of a relatively smaller stature, in that a bib front, generally designated as bib front BI in FIGS. 2 and 3, that is delimited on one lateral side by the snap-secured left hand side-fold assembly 22 and on the opposite lateral side by the right hand side-fold assembly 24, remains in a non-gathered disposition—i.e., the inner and outer textile sheets forming the respective pocket 42 in this region of the garment 10 remains generally in a non-gathered or non-folded together disposition that comfortably overlies the chest of the person using the garment.

As seen in FIG. 5, the folding-over operation in which the rear panel flap portion 46A of the left hand side assembly 22 is folded forwardly to bring the left hand rear panel flap portion 46A in a position overlying the zipper pull 56A that is disposed in its topmost disposition during the robing operation. This overlying disposition advantageously discourages inadvertent or unwanted contact with the zipper pull 56A that results in a downward movement of the zipper pull from its topmost disposition.

The garment 10 can thus be seen as a garment that provides a useful life for use with a newborn child, a toddler, an infant, up to and through a child of pre-school years, and a child of school year ages. The garment can be conveniently accommodated to the growth of an infant such that, as the infant grows and becomes a toddler, more accommodation can be provided at the neck pass-through opening 16, the left arm port 18, and the right arm port 20 to accommodate increased dimensions of the child. Additionally, as seen in FIG. 4, the garment 10 can also be provided with a plurality of lower-end donor snaps 62 that cooperate with a plurality of lower-end recipient snaps 64 disposed laterally along a lower one of the pockets 42 such that the lower end of the garment 10 can be folded upwardly to decrease the total length extent of the garment

The article of the present invention has been exemplarily disclosed and illustrated with respect to a garment but it is to be understood that the fabric article can as well be any fabric article in which it is desirable or advantageous to have the features that have been described herein.

From the foregoing description of one embodiment of the invention, it will be apparent that many modifications may be made therein. It will be understood that this embodiment of the invention is an exemplification of the invention only and that the invention is not limited thereto. 

1. A garment comprising: an upper torso portion, the upper torso portion having a neck pass through opening; a trunk portion, the trunk portion including a left arm port, a right arm port, a left hand side-fold assembly, and a right hand side-fold assembly, a front panel, and a back panel, each of the left hand side-fold assembly and the right hand side-fold assembly being connected to the back panel and the front panel and being foldable to overlie a respective lateral area of the front panel of the trunk portion; and a plurality of securement elements, the securement elements for securing at least one of the left hand side-fold assembly and the right hand side-fold assembly in a plurality of different folded dispositions, with the at least one of the left hand side-fold assembly and the right hand side-fold assembly, in each folded disposition, overlying the front panel of the trunk portion to a different lateral extent than in the other folded dispositions, the at least one of the left hand side-fold assembly and the right hand side-fold assembly and the securement elements providing a capability to adjustably vary a lateral width of the garment.
 2. A garment according to claim 1, wherein the securement elements include a plurality of donor snaps and a plurality of recipient snaps, each donor snap being releasably securable to a recipient snap.
 3. A garment according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of donor snaps are mounted on a selected one of the at least one of the left hand side-fold assembly and the right hand side-fold assembly and the front panel of the trunk portion and the plurality of recipient snaps are mounted on the other one of the at least one of the left hand side-fold assembly and the right hand side-fold assembly and the front panel of the trunk portion.
 4. A garment according to claim 3 and further comprising a zipper extending in the at least one of the left hand side-fold assembly and the right hand side-fold assembly.
 5. A garment according to claim 4, wherein the upper torso portion includes a pair of straps each connected to the front panel and the back panel of the trunk portion and operable to extend over a shoulder of a person wearing the garment. 